Online meeting places - Online gathering places

Age plays no role on the Internet. Young and old meet online to gather information, pass on knowledge, share experiences and most importantly to make contacts.

There are many sites on the Internet where users meet. These pages either focus on certain topics (e.g. health, sports, leisure time) or on certain brands of consumer products.

Forums are parts of larger website or independent pages. Those who visit forums shouldn't just read the posts, they should get involved. This makes it easy to establish contacts and enables others to benefit from your experiences and knowledge.

In order to participate, you must follow certain rules known as "netiquette" (a combination of "network" and "etiquette"). A few examples: You should log in with a nickname that you invent - no one uses their full first and last name. User names often tell a lot about the person behind them: Josef1940 was probably born in 1940 and is named Josef. If he calls himself "railroadfan", then one immediately knows something about his hobby. Writing in capital letters is regarded as "shouting" or "yelling at someone" on the Internet - not a tool for improved legibility. The Internet community is tolerant when it comes to typos, however, and quickly forgives them.

Forums are often moderated. The moderators are especially active users to whom the operator has granted exclusive rights. They can, for example, remove insulting comments, arbitrate disputes or help in using the website. They often moderate live, written discussions on the Internet known as chats. Moderators make sure that everyone sticks to the rules and treats each other fairly.

You should always watch the entries in the forums for a few days or weeks before becoming involved. This will help you discover how the users communicate, quickly learn a few rules and - most importantly - determine if you want to spend time and energy there or should search for another forum instead. By the way, nearly every forum has its own search engine to help you find topics quickly and a section with information for newcomers. So don't be shy, even the most active moderators had to start with their first entry somewhere.